The oldest person in the world, the Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, died Wednesday at the age of 116, having barely survived early childhood and attributing his long life to God, said his order and two trackers of longevity.
The title is now going to Ethel Caterham, a resident of Surrey, England, who is 115 years old, according to the Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the Longeviquet database.
Born on June 8, 1908, Canabarro became the oldest person in the world after the death in January of Japanese women Tomiko Itoka, also 116 years old.
The Congregation of Brazil’s Tresian Sisters in Porto Alegre announced the death of Canabarro on Wednesday in a statement in which he thanked “for dedication and devotion” she had shown in life.
Longeviquet, in a Bishop, said that Canabarro had been a fragile child and that “many doubted to survive”.
She became a nun in 1934 at the age of 26, between the world wars I and II.
Canabarro had attributed his longevity to God, saying: “He is the secret of life. He is the secret of everything”, according to Longeviquet.
For her 110th anniversary, she received a blessing from Pope Francis, who died last Monday at the age of 88.
Although she said that her date of birth was on May 27, 1908, “her date of birth documented according to the files is June 8, 1908,” GRG director Robert Young told AFP in January.
Longeviquet said that Canabarro had been the oldest person in history, and the second oldest nun after France Lucile Randon, who lived at the age of 118 and died in 2023.
